In early February of 2023, our school received the sad news that our grade 5 teacher had experienced a tragedy in her family and would not be returning to work for the foreseeable future. It was with this unfortunate circumstance that I was temporarily placed in the role as this classroom teacher until some certainty could be obtained. The students in the class already knew who I was and so I would be able to provide some consistency and a known presence during this tumultuous time.
Although I was not asked to do so, I took it upon myself – with the help of neighbouring grade 5 and 6 teachers – to lesson plan and organize materials so that the class could run smoothly while we awaited further instructions. Because I was an itinerant teacher and could not be pre-booked, I knew that my availability to teach this class would be dependent upon whether I was needed elsewhere and if someone else had picked up the job. With that information in mind, I planned lessons and laid out materials in such a way that anyone coming into the room could follow them – I essentially created 5 weeks worth of supply lesson plans.
On my second day in the class, I used the teacher’s prep time and some of my own personal time to create lesson plans for the rest of the week and to photocopy the materials needed for each subject. I then laid them all out with sticky notes on the front table so that anyone coming into the room would be able to find things easily.
I followed this same process for each subsequent week – at the end of the week I would take stock of what the class had gotten to and what was left over and then planned the next week of lessons. I then printed, photocopied and gathered any materials needed for all lessons and laid them out so that the classroom would flow smoothly. Below is an example of the daybook pages that I created with detailed instructions.
When it became clear that the teacher was not going to be returning to her classroom anytime soon, I took it upon myself to create long-range plans for the remaining few months of school. We were not sure at the time how long I would be able to remain in this position, however, while I was there I made the class my own while keeping as much familiar routine as possible. The teacher provided information on what she had left to cover, and I created long-range plans from there.
While the administration was actively trying to hire an LTO for the position, I started and completed a math unit on Area and Perimeter with the students. As such, I created their unit test which would help to assess their understanding of concepts we had covered during the unit.
Prior to this unit test, I also created a review baseball game so that the students had some idea of what skills they would be required to show during their test.
While working as their classroom teacher, I also created a persuasive writing assignment which extended upon an assignment intended by the original classroom teacher. We did several extension activities regarding transition words and phrases which was an area of need identified by the students,
Just before the new LTO arrived to take over this position, I had created a grade book spreadsheet to keep track of incoming marks, as well as to consolidate grades from work completed before their classroom teacher left but also before I started marking their assignments.
All in all, this was a fantastic learning opportunity for me to grow as an educator. Prior to this experience, I had no experience with students at this grade level. I was extremely proud to be able to work with this group of students and I was honoured to have been trusted by the administration and their classroom teacher to take over this role for the 5 weeks that I did.